Please take a minute to view our sponsors offer.
Powered by Max Banner Ads
Survival Gardening 10, self reliance emergency preparedness
July 3rd, 2009 | 
Author: 
Video # 10 in our Survival Gardening series go over soils and soil improvement techniques. Video #11 will follow shortly.
Unless you are keeping a herd of large animals like cows, it’s going to be very hard to keep grow food long term using just what’s “on” the farm or homestead. For a handful of raised beds, half dozen rabbits and similar number of chickens MAY provide enough fertilizer to keep your soil in good shape. But for a serious amount of ground, i.e, enough to truly keep a family of 4 of so in food, it’s going to be next to impossible to produce ALL your fertilizer and soil amendments ON THE FARM or homestead. While I do NOT claim to be an “organic gardener”, most of these soil improvement techniques are similar to those used in organic gardening. As a rule, we do NOT use pesticides on our VEGETABLES. We have been forced to use them on our fruit trees before to SAVE TREES. So understand that just because we don’t do everything “organic” doesn’t mean we slather DDT on the ground everywhere…..
www.survivalreport.net
www.homesteadingandsurvival.com
tags- gardening, soil improvement, manure, fertilizer, hard times, economic collapse, economic crisis, peak oil, end of oil, survivalist, homesteading, homestead, survival, 2012, bird flu, preparedness emergency, Patriots, Alex Jones, 911, Dow, market, food shortages, food storage, anything else that will bring folks in.
Duration : 0:6:13
Posted in 
Tags:
That sounds like a …
That sounds like a practical arrangement. But for us, we already invested in wire fencing& it’s adequate for sheep……but goats have a talent for escaping wire fencing(& any other kind, too) so I’m thinking we’d better stick to what we’ve got….besides, my mom spins & knits AMAZING warm sock & sweaters (my favorite Christmas gift)……….& she loves the wool.
in the North East. …
in the North East. If we had less than the 10 acres (+woodlot) I know for sure we’d have to buy some fertilizer. It’d be interesting to hear from other people if the “formula” is different in other areas…..almost forgot to add….Thanks for the awesome & helpful videos.
We got some goats a …
We got some goats a few months ago and have included “done” garden areas into their pasture rotations. You might could do the same with the sheep. The goats get in there, clean up a lot of the residual plant material, poop everywhere. Use combination panels to keep them where you want them. We’ll shoot a little video covering this soon. Basically let the animals do some of the garden cleanup and fertilization for you- saves some work hauling manure, etc.
We keep 4-10 sheep( …
We keep 4-10 sheep(& their lambs for the spring/summer)on 4acres pasture from May to Oct .Keep them out there 24/7 & manure replenishes pasture.We need another 4 acres hay to keep them over the winter &most of this winter manure is put on the garden(acre +).We rotate crop/hay/pasture so fertility’s maintained adequate(only the garden needs really high fertility). So I guess it takes us 8 acres of hay/pasture to keep our garden productive! Still need to “import” lime every 4-5 yrs.This is…..
I love that you …
I love that you talk about the weeds. Every time I see people pulling up all the weeds to make the perfect little rows it drives me crazy. Any sort of decomposing plant should add nutrients to your soil. As long as it’s not a forest it’s not a big deal.
I agree, you can’t …
I agree, you can’t really always grow EVERYTHING with 100% Organic everything, but you can use a majority of at least 85-90% organic, it just tends to be more expensive, But if you’re hungry enough, it’s not important if it’s organic, or not, as long as it’s edible, and gives you some nourishment.
great stuff man, …
great stuff man, watched through #10 will catch the rest after dinner.
Should probably …
Should probably take a gander at episode 14 if you really believe that putting any fertilizer on the soil will kill earthworms…. Their is undisputable proof that isn’t true in that video.
Yes, kinda late for folks just getting into it to do a lot to build their soil. That’s the main reason we are covering this the way we are covering it. Do everything you CAN for your soil, and we show that and talk about that, but most people will only start serious gardening as they get hungry.
Then you use …
Then you use bokashi, indigenous microbes, compost tea to feed your plants. HEY but really thanks for what you are doing is NEEDED!
Thanks for the good …
Thanks for the good info, there will not be any fertilizer if there is economic collapse. People that are self sufficient have inverted in their soil for years and years (compost adding). Ag was like that before (100yrs ago) but it was screwed by fertilizers killing the microbes and worms as well as fungicides and other. The only way that you can really be 100% self is adding adding compost compost compost all years… kind of late to do that for many folks.
I hear about …
I hear about composting toilets. Does anyone here know anything about those? Is that a practical idea? I know its sort of cave-man to ‘make’ and a hole- but if it works…
I’m all for soil …
I’m all for soil improvement, crop rotation, cover crops, use of manures, etc. however I’m NOT into “absolutes” and I will use a spray to SAVE TREES (which it did!). Does that mean I slather DDT on the ground everywhere? Of course not, but to the granola heads, if you EVER have to use a single chemical your practically a heretic! I guess that is why you see so few of them actually LIVING out their beliefs. I’m upfront and honest about the fact that you MAY need them, but I prefer not to! Thanks
I noted that, and I …
I noted that, and I realize that with fruit trees especially the difference may be tremendous. The variety of tree you planted may have some vulnerability that another may not?…dwarf trees stocks aren’t as robust as full-size, though they bear much sooner, etc. I’m just saying that there are different approaches within “organic” agriculture. I’d love for you to check out the video I linked to in another comment, and also “forest gardening” videos. Long-term, we won’t have chemicals to use.
Well keep in mind …
Well keep in mind as I’ve mentioned before that we did the full “organic” thing for many years. Wouldn’t say results were “miserable” but they were a LOT less. I realize to the organo-nazi’s I am a heretic because I mentioned using 34-0-0 on a corn crop and spraying to SAVE FRUIT TREES, but the reality of the situation is that we have only sprayed to SAVE FRUIT TREES when their was NO OTHER RECOURSE, no “organic control” that would work. Their isn’t always easy answers in the real world.
Commercial …
Commercial fertilizers work well in the short term, but in the long run they will break your “bank” as they have done with the large-scale monoculture farms. The soil of this country is nearly ruined from mismanaged agriculture, plowing, and chemical inputs. In the longer term, there won’t be any more chemical inputs, so people will have to adapt to growing without them, it can be done! I think you can grow a lot more food with a lot less land if you layer crops using permaculture principles.
excellent advice
excellent advice
Yep, 6′ disc and …
Yep, 6′ disc and small tractor
Wonderful advice.
…
Wonderful advice.
Thank you.
I guess you have a …
I guess you have a tractor do the discing. I’ve used the little ones towed behind a 4 wheeler on food plots and they don’t get it as fine as your soil is.
google or youtube: …
google or youtube: Soil Secrets
Keep up that …
Keep up that relationship with the farmer that has the cows!